The Well-beloved (Oxford World's Classics)

by ThomasHardy (Author), TomHetherington (Editor)

• Used

  Paperback
  1998

  $5.70

  As the last of Hardy's novels to be published, The Well-Beloved has generated great scholarly interest recently. Partly autobiographical, it tells the story of the sculptor Jocelyn Pierston, whose search for the ideal woman in both Portland and London leads him into courtships with a Portland woman, her daughter and her grand-daughter. This edition is the first to recover Hardy's final revisions to the text.

• Used

  Paperback
  2000

  $3.74

  Introduction and Notes by Jane Thomas, University of Hull. The Well-Beloved completes the cycle of Hardy's great novels, reiterating his favourite themes of man's eternal quest for perfection in both love and art, and the suffering that ensues. Jocelyn Pierston, celebrated sculptor, tries to create an image of his ideal woman - his imaginary Well-Beloved - in stone, just as he tries to find her in the flesh. Powerful symbolism marks this romantic fantasy that Hardy has grounded firmly in reality with a characteristically authentic rendering of location, the Isle of Slingers, or Portland as we know it. Overt exploration of the relationship between erotic fascination and creativity makes this novel a nineteenth-century landmark in the persistent debate about art, aesthetics and gender. This volume breaks new ground by including in full the1892 serialised version of the novel - The Pursuit of the Well-Beloved.